Anna Nicole Smith Says, “Gentlemen Prefer Fur-Free Blondes”

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but a fur coat can be her worst enemy. On November 11, 2004, donning a pink satin dress and surrounded by a group of tuxedoed suitors, Anna Nicole Smith evoked Marilyn Monroe in PETA’s “Gentlemen Prefer Fur-Free Blondes” ad campaign. The ad spotlighted a survey in Marie Claire, which found that eight out of 10 men find fur a turnoff, calling it “horribly cruel.” The ad’s tagline: “If you want to hook up, hang it up.”

“To kill an animal for a coat is crazy,” said Anna Nicole, who felt that although it may have been a status symbol in the era of her idol, Marilyn Monroe, fur is now a social liability. “My late husband gave me two fur coats years ago, but I’ve never worn them, and I never will. I’m a HUGE animal lover and have three dogs, Sugar Pie, Marilyn, and Puppy. How can anybody who calls themselves an animal lover wear fur? What they do to these animals to make fur coats should be illegal.”

In spite of furriers’ desperate attempts to proclaim the “comeback of fur,” many of Hollywood’s most stylish stars continue to speak out against it. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen—who used to pose for fur ads—now regrets it and told Vanity Fair, “It was a bad decision on my part, because I don’t wear fur. … I am the biggest animal-lover in the world.” Sarah Jessica Parker said that unlike her character on Sex and the City, she would never wear fur. And Oscar winner Charlize Theron appeared in PETA’s “If You Wouldn’t Wear Your Dog, Please Don’t Wear Any Fur” billboard campaign.

PETA reminds consumers that for every fur coat, collar, or cuff, animals are trapped, drowned, and beaten to death in the wild and gassed, strangled, and electrocuted on fur farms.

For more information, visit PETA.org or watch our undercover fur-farm investigation narrated by Stella McCartney.